Iron ore price

From Yahoo: BHP Billiton does not expect recent rises in iron ore and coal prices to hold for more than a few months, as the uptick in prices would bring more supply to the market, its Australian chief said on Thursday.

From Reuters: …a survey by Chinese consultancy Custeel showed 68 blast furnaces with an estimated 50 million tonnes of capacity have resumed production.

Big iron continues to rampage with Dalian limit up again and shares following suit.

The iron ore spike is now so huge that macro economic implications must be explored.

Iron ore wow for April 3, 2016: Spot wow with Tianjin benchmark up 4% to $64.

From the World Steel Association: World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 137 million tonnes (Mt) in March 2016, a -0.5% decrease compared to March 2015.

One man who will be breathing an enormous sigh of relief today is Trevor Sykes with BHP blasting through $20 and effectively ending the infamous Sykesnado in which he instructed all to buy the stock as it plunged into a value destroying vortex.

From the AFR: Atlas Iron’s debt restructure looks set to get the green light from its lenders on Friday following the receipt of predominantly positive proxies from the miner’s mostly US-based debt holders.

From the former Big Australian: And on iron ore: Iron ore – Total iron ore production for the nine months ended March 2016 was broadly unchanged at 171 Mt.

From Mac Bank’s excellent steel mill survey:  Our steel survey result for April shows a continued strengthening in demand from infrastructure and construction, with order indices for both of them reaching the highest level in the history of our survey.

Iron ore charts for April 19, 2016: Whoa!

So much for rebalancing!

From RIO’s Q1 production report: Pilbara operations Pilbara operations produced 79.9 million tonnes (Rio Tinto share 65.0 million tonnes) in the first quarter of 2016, 12 per cent higher than the same quarter of 2015.

Iron ore charts for April 18, 2016: Another day, another surge.

From AAP comes Mark Mentha: “I’m quite overwhelmed with the support that we’re getting from the large corporate base and from the small suppliers that we have both here in South Australia and on the eastern seaboard,” Mr Mentha told reporters in Adelaide.

From UBS: 16/17 CW Budget Preview – the end of slippage? Treasurer Morrison will bring down the 16/17 Commonwealth Budget on May 3 (a week earlier than normal) – his 1st & the Coalition Governments’ 3rd.

Readers will recall that MB has been skeptical that China would be able to resuscitate its construction boom given three-quarters of it is based in third and fourth tier cities where house prices are still flat and falling owing to huge oversupply.

Iron ore price charts for April 15, 2016: Spot hit with Tianjin benchmark -1.9% to $57.50.

Iron ore charts for April 14, 2016:    Spot was whacked with Tianjin benchmark down -2.2% to $58.60.

The last time FMG screamed above $3 I noted that those shorts puking positions ought to be reloading.  Now we’re back above $3 again with iron ore rollicking higher (though Dalian has tired during the day) and it is now raining downgrades on FMG again from the sell side.

It’s becoming a bear market rally for the ages for big iron with BHP up 4.8%, RIO 3.1% and FMG 2.8% as Dalian is up another 5.5 points at the open:   RIO and FMG are now at new highs in the rally.

From The West Australian: Fortescue Metals Group and Vale could start bulk trials of blended ore with Chinese steel mills within a month.

Again from Matthew Stevens: ….Australian banks, in particular, were left “incandescent” when McGrathNicol’s appraisal of the confronting proposal identified that GSO and Arrium management planned to close the Whyalla steelworks.

From Business Standard: Iron ore production is on upswing as many mines have started operating after a few years of suspension, following Supreme Court orders.